On this, Tuesday, Aug. 3, episode of Sundial.
A Spike In Kids With COVID
Florida leads the nation in new coronavirus cases and in the number of children hospitalized for the virus.
As the pandemic continues, you can rely on WLRN to keep you current on local news and information. Your support is what keeps WLRN strong. Please become a member today. Donate now. Thank you.
According to CDC data released last week, 32 children on average were admitted to Florida hospitals daily. That’s above the peak of last year’s surge.
“We definitely are seeing many more kids in the emergency department. The reason that is because last summer with isolation and quarantining, there weren't as many of the other types of infections that we typically see, the more common ones being RSV [respiratory syncytial virus] and influenza,” said Dr. Marcos Mestre, chief medical officer at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami.
Children under 12 are still not eligible to receive a COVID vaccine. With school set to start again in the coming weeks, pediatricians are concerned the problem could get even worse.
“I want to create awareness for parents but also not panic. Only about 1% of children that are infected require hospitalization,” said Mestre. “We're just seeing more of the infections and the denominator, therefore, is larger and hence we're seeing a little bit more hospitalizations at this time.”
Cruises Comeback
Cruises are back sailing from U.S. ports — after more than a year of being shut down because of the pandemic.
Last year, cruise lines were making headlines for COVID-19 outbreaks. Now, they’re hoping to make a comeback with precautions to prevent the spread of the virus.
Still, the pandemic is not over and more contagious variants of COVID are spreading at an alarming rate.
Just last week, six passengers tested positive aboard Royal Caribbean International's Adventure of the Seas — which departed from Nassau, Bahamas.
“They were medically evacuated and taken door to door from the ship to their homes via private transport on a private plane. And that transportation came at no cost to the passengers," said Morgan Hines, a travel and consumer news reporter for USA Today.
Hines was sailing on that same cruise on assignment and was the first to report the news.
Four of the six passengers who tested positive had been vaccinated. The other two were unvaccinated minors.
All passengers 16 and older were required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to board the cruise ship. Children under 16 needed to test negative for the virus before boarding.
All of the crew members were vaccinated.
CryptoPunks NFT
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, have become increasingly popular in the arts, business and entertainment worlds.
The Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami became one of the first major art museums to acquire an NFT.
“Artists are still asking themselves how to present that work. So if you have a digital file, you have any number of options, you could project it. You could turn it into a drawing, you could turn it into a giant sculpture,” said Alex Gartenfeld, artistic director of ICA Miami.
It comes as the museum is expanding its digital art offerings with the coronavirus pandemic changing how museums operate.
